


Two Days

by BotchedExperiment



Series: AU Sickfics No One Asked for [2]
Category: LazyTown
Genre: Alternate Universe - Office, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Sickfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-03
Updated: 2017-05-03
Packaged: 2018-10-27 06:16:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,349
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10803465
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BotchedExperiment/pseuds/BotchedExperiment
Summary: Sportacus could swear he heard a cough as his boss walked away.





	Two Days

**Author's Note:**

> Once again, this was inspired by a conversation with Sorahana, who actively encourages me.

"Make sure you finish your work by five today."

The voice that normally barked orders was unusually... Tired. Nevertheless, Sportacus nodded.

"Of course, sir."

"You've been off the last couple of days, you know."

"I know. It won't happen again, Mr. Rotten." He didn't bother to argue that his attention was on his daughter at home, sick with the seasonal flu going around. He called his older brother regularly for updates and it admittedly caused his work to suffer. Sportacus knew that he let himself slip at his new job and his boss was being perfectly reasonable in scolding him.

"Good."

Sportacus could swear he heard a cough as his boss walked away.

\-----

_Sneeze, sniffle... Cough cough._

The symphony of illness sounded throughout the entire bullpen, but particularly from Mr. Rotten's office. Sportacus' cubicle sat directly in front of it, presumably so his boss could keep an eye on his new employee but it made it quite easy for Sportacus to watch him as well.

The flu was making its way through the office like wildfire, and Mr. Rotten was very clearly down with it. It was no wonder, really. Sportacus could count on one hand the number of times he'd seen the man eat anything besides snack cakes and drink something besides coffee and soda. He was always at work when Sportacus arrived and still there when he left. All in all, the man hardly ate and always worked.

Not that Sportacus was one to judge. With this new job and a sick kid, he'd been too distracted to keep up with his own healthy lifestyle.

A loud sneeze grabbed his attention and he looked up to see his boss reach for the tissues on his desk, only for his nails to scrape the bottom of the box. Oh, the poor guy...

Mr. Rotten reached into his pocket, pulling out a handkerchief that looked decidedly overused. He blew his nose, a quiet, miserable groan following soon after.

Sportacus managed to get his work done, even with the distraction that was his ailing boss. He stood and stretched quite a bit. Office jobs really weren't for him.

He passed Mr. Rotten's office just in time to hear an awful coughing fit, followed by a series of sniffles.

"...Sir?" Sportacus couldn't quite stop it before it came out of his mouth. Leave it alone, he told himself. He's your boss.

Mr. Rotten looked up from his papers, startled. Sportacus could see the clear signs of illness on his face now that he was closer. His nose was a deep shade of red, eyes glassy and tired, lips chapped and parted as if he hadn't breathed through his nose in ages.

"Yes? What is it?" His voice didn't sound too great, either.

"If you don't mind my saying so..." He flinched as Mr. Rotten's exhausted expression morphed into an even more exhausted _glare._

"Go on."

Sportacus swallowed. "You don't look... well. You should really go home and get some rest."

Mr. Rotten gaped as if Sportacus had just suggested the impossible.

" _Excuse_ me?"

Oh, he should have known to just keep his mouth shut... "I- I mean- !" He sighed. "Sir, you're sick."

Mr. Rotten shook his head. "I need to stay late and finish... _hhhh_... this..." He was taken over by another sneeze. This one shook his frame and scraped against his throat and Sportacus couldn't help but wince. The man blinked, looking dizzy even as he was seated.

"Sir, if I can be honest... no one would want contaminated documents." Granted, half of the office was already down with this plague.

Mr. Rotten looked as if he was going to protest or - God forbid - yell like Sportacus had heard so many times before, but instead his eyes widened as he looked down at the folders and back at Sportacus, like he never even considered he could be spreading germs by merely doing his work.

"I suppose it won't hurt to finish this tomorrow."

Tomorrow? If he had what everyone else did, Mr. Rotten would be laid up for _days_. Oh well, at least Sportacus managed to convince him to leave at a reasonable hour.

Mr. Rotten stumbled as he stood and Sportacus rushed to support him. He half-expected the man to pull away, but instead he nodded a tired thank you and continued on his way with Sportacus holding onto him. Heat seeped through his purple dress shirt; he was too warm.

They had to stop several times for his vision to stop swimming. He'd squeeze his eyes shut and leaned heavily on his employee until the dizzy spell passed.

"My car is just downstairs," He slurred, recovering from a third bout of dizziness.

Oh… oh no, he couldn’t- "I insist you let me drive you home, sir. I'm not comfortable with the thought of a feverish man on the roads."

Mr. Rotten looked about to refuse, but a coughing fit and another dizzy spell seemed to decide it for him.

\-----

Robbie Rotten had spent a total of two work days in bed with the godawful plague he'd come down with. He spent both of those days working and taking calls from home despite the persistent headache as well as the rest of the symptoms. He returned to work as soon as he could get out of bed, deciding that he was feeling better and was eager to get back to work. No one could force him to stay home until he was completely well! He didn’t have that kind of time! Substitute coffee for tea and stay at his desk for the day and he'll be as good as new.

So, Robbie walked into the office, finding his fit, annoyingly-healthy employee looking… a little pale. His desk, usually neat and organized was covered in tissues and cough drop wrappers.

"Morning," Robbie greeted as he sipped from his thermos.

Sportacus spun around in his chair and by the hand massaging his temple, he immediately regretted it. "Good morning, sir. It's good to see you well again."

"That bug finally got to you, huh?"

"Hm? Oh, no… I just had a hard time sleeping last night."

Robbie doesn’t believe him for a second, but as long as the guy's work gets done he was in no position to send him home. He was already prepared to catch up on what he missed and turned back to his office where he planned to stay the entire workday.

He did stay in there, for a while at least. Until he heard a miserable-sounding sneeze, and the cough that followed. It hadn't been a foreign sound lately with how many of his employees had gone down, but the source of the noise was right in front of his office.

Sportacus sniffled rather desperately and pulled a tissue from his rapidly-depleting supply. He blew his nose, threw it in the overflowing bin under his desk, and pumped on an ungodly amount of sanitizer. He obviously had every intention of staying until his work was done, just as Robbie had been nagging him to do since he started this job.

The new employee did outstandingly well his first couple of weeks, annoyingly eating fruits and veggies on his lunchbreak and asking everyone how their days were going. And then he started to slip up, forgetting assignments and not finishing his work on time. Robbie thought he was getting too comfortable, but if his current dedication said anything, there must have been something else going on.

He didn’t think about it until now, but there must have been a reason for his working so hard when he was down with the flu, because he sure wasn’t the self-destructive workaholic that Robbie was.

Robbie sighed when he heard a second sneeze, and then a third, and a fourth and- okay, this needed to stop.

" _Now_ who's contaminating the office?" Robbie said flatly as he approached the man's cubicle.

Sportacus flinched a bit and looked down at his desk. "I just- I can't afford to take a sick day," He mumbled before muffling a cough into the crook of his elbow.

Robbie finally noticed the pictures on his new employee's desk, the only things he had used to personalize his workspace. They were of a kid, presumably his daughter, but none of a spouse.

Ah. Well.

He shifted his weight awkwardly, leaning on the cubicle wall. "You're uh, gonna regret not going to bed sooner if you’ve got what I had, you know. I'm sure you can afford to take a half day, but if you wanna stay it's your funeral."

Sportacus glanced up at him and quickly looked away again, gnawing on his lip.

"I… you're right, but…" He cleared his throat. "… money's a little tight this month and I'm the only one…." Suddenly, Sportacus turned away and coughed violently. He hardly had time to get himself together before another cough came. Robbie grimaced.

"Go home."

 _That_ got his immediate attention. Sportacus frantically shook his head. "Sir, please! It won't affect my work! I can-" He stuttered to a stop at Robbie's raised hand.

"Stop, stop, stop. You leave early today and make up the hours when you're not hacking up a lung onto your desk. I trust that you'll work just as hard when you return?"

Sportacus stared in disbelief and nodded hesitantly. "Y-yes, sir." He sniffled.

"Now, go home."

Robbie watched him sway and stumble as he stood up and grabbed his keys, and suddenly he realized exactly what Sportacus must have seen the day that the roles were reversed.

And if he was as sick as Robbie was…

"I… can drive you, if you'll let me."

"Oh, Mr. Rotten, I can't let you do that!" His face was completely red from fever. He absolutely _could_ let him do that.

Robbie told him the truth. "I'm still not feeling the best myself. I'll just go home afterward." He left to grab his things and didn’t give Sportacus a chance to protest.

\-----

"I appreciate this, sir. Sorry for the trouble." Sportacus struggled to unlock his door with slow, shaky hands, but he finally managed and immediately got attacked by the little pink child in the photos.

"Dad! You're home early!"

Her eyes fell on Robbie as she clung to her father.

"Ah, Stephanie, this is my boss. He was nice enough to bring me home today because I wasn’t feeling well."

She narrowed her eyes. "The man with the funny name?"

Sportacus widened his eyes and looked at Robbie apologetically. Robbie just smiled. "Yep, that's me. I like to think it fits my personality rather well."

"I'm sure that's not true!" Sportacus said. Suddenly, he walked in, his daughter still attached to him. "Ithro! I'm back! You can go!"

A man of similar size and stature as Sportacus nodded a greeting to their guest, said his goodbyes, and walked out past Robbie. Robbie stood in the doorway awkwardly. He was used to bossing this guy around and now he was at his home and feeling wildly out of his element.

"You can come in if you'd like, sir. I think I'm going to make some tea and I'm sure you could use some more."

Robbie blinked. "How did you know I was drinking tea today?"

"Well, the coffee you bring from home is very strong..."

"You mean you can smell it?" Robbie asked, eyebrow raised.

A hoarse giggle. "Everyone can, sir. That’s how we know when you're in a bad-" he cleared his throat and coughed a little forcefully. "Anyway… go ahead and have a seat and I'll- hhhh- I'll-" Sportacus snapped forward with a violent sneeze and the stumbled backwards into the wall. It'd be comical if Robbie didn’t relate to it so much, as he had been in the same condition just a couple days ago.

"Bless you, Pabbi!"

The pink kid - Stephanie? - ran in and held out a box of tissues in front of her father, who thanked her and took a handful.

"Did I get you sick?" She asked with a frown.

Sportacus blew his nose and leaned heavily against the wall, shaking his head. "Everyone is sick right now. I don’t think one person is to blame," he said with a smile.

Oh, seeing him with a kid was… weird. It made Robbie feel slightly guilty about being so hard on him his first couple weeks of work. Sportacus was forced to take whatever crap Robbie threw at him because he needed the job no matter who made his life hell. And now Robbie had a feeling he knew what his employee was so preoccupied with those couple of days - a sick child.

"How about _you_ have a seat and _I_ make tea. I'm sure St- uh, the pink kid can show me where everything is."

"Yeah! I can!"

\-----

"This job isn't for you, you know," Robbie said absently as he sipped his tea. They had been sitting awkwardly at the table, the only sound being both of them blowing their noses like some kind of disgusting duo.

Sportacus had a look of pure fear. "N-no, it is! I-"

"Relax, I'm not firing you! Not even close. You do better than half of my other employees. I'm just saying - and chalk this up to the remains of flu fogging my brain - that you're not cut out for office work."

He looked ashamed but didn’t deny it.

"You know, people usually prefer a desk job to something physical, but-"

Sportacus cocked his head like a puppy. Robbie continued.

"… but in your case I'm going to guess that you'd rather be doing hard physical labor."

"Sir?"

"They could use a guy as fit as you in the warehouse, I'm sure."

"… Sir?"

"I can make some calls. After you're well, of course."

Sportacus gasped, smile growing wide on his face before his gasp dissolved into a coughing fit. "Thank-" _cough_ "…thank you, Mr. Rotten!"

"And it's Robbie outside of work, please."

Sportacus grinned. With tired eyes and a red nose, he still managed to look like the happiest man in the world. "Thank you, Robbie."


End file.
